The Fallen Star

Well, if you liked the whole outdoorsy thing 606/695

that is. Which I so don’t. Plus, there was the co

A streak of purple suddenly rushed by me—the little girl.

“Okay, it’s starting,” I told Nicholas.

The little girl twirled in circles, just like she’d done the first time, her face still all hazy.

“What do you see?” Nicholas asked.

I wondered if I was allowed to tell him

“Um...”

He frowned. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re seeing.” I sighed. “I see a little girl twirling in front of a lake.”

“Can you see her face?”

I shook my head. “Nope. It’s still all blurry.”

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“Then you need to focus harder,” he said, as if it were that simple.

But it wasn’t that simple. “Focus harder on what exactly?”

“Hmm…” He gave me a look that immediately put me on edge. He strolled around behind me, standing way to close for comfort. And the smell of flowers and rain was killing me. I mean, I don’t mind breathing in the smell of lilacs every once and awhile, or taking in the scent of freshly fallen rain right after a storm, but he was a guy that smelled like flowers. It was too weird.

“Right now your mind is trying to adjust to the power of the crystal, but it can’t quite figure out how to get there.” He leaned over my shoulder, breathing into my ear. “The first thing you need to do is take a deep breath. Then try to relax.” What was it with him and invading my personal space? Maybe it was a faerie thing or something?

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I took a deep breath and tried hard to ignore the flowery smell. “Okay, I’m relaxed.

Now what?”

“Let your mind focus,” he said, still breathing into my ear. “The images are already there, they just haven’t co

I inched away from him as casually as I could and sighed. “Yeah, I still don’t get it.” He placed his hands on my shoulders.

“Have you ever looked at one of those magic eye images before?”

My shoulders stiffened under his touch.

“Uh, Yeah, I guess.”

“Well, this is kind of like looking at one of those.” He pressed his fingertips into my shoulder blades, massaging them gently.

“Relax you eyes and let your mind make sense of the images.”

I shrugged off his hands—I couldn’t focus with him touching me—and concentrated on the images.

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The little boy had come up during Nicholas’s little tutoring session and was now guiding the little girl away from the lake.

Their faces were still blocked out by a sheet of haze, so I took a deep breath and let my eyes relax. Gradually, a tu

I was getting so close to being able to see who the little girl was. Only a few more seconds and I probably would have had it.

But then the man stepped into view, and all of my concentration shattered.

I kicked the ground with the tip of my sneaker. “Crap.”

“What?”

Nicholas

asked.

“What’s

wrong?”

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“I just about had it and then this man….I don’t know. When he appeared, he ruined my concentration or something.”

“Well, don’t look at him then. Try to pretend he’s not there.”

Easier said than done, since I knew what the man was going to do here pretty soon. I shook my head, frustrated, and returned my gaze back to the vision. I put my concentration on the boy this time, letting the tu

I was getting discouraged. “So what happens if I can’t do it?”

“You can,” he assured me. “All you have to do is catch a glimpse of each of their faces, and in the end, your mind will put it all together.”

“And what if I can’t see all of their faces before the vision ends?”

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He laughed. “Then I guess I’ll have to keep you down here until you do.” His words caused me to shiver. But they also filled me with determination.

The little boy was now getting ready to head to the castle. Okay, you can do this Gemma.The dark tu

His eyes were green, his hair brown.

Alright. I so had this.

I flung my attention to the man, who was now yanking the little girl from the woman’s arms. I paid attention to nothing else but the girl’s blurry face. This time the haze disappeared much quicker. But I must have seen it wrong. There’s no way that could be right. I blinked. And blinked again. But nothing changed. Her eyes—the color—violet. Yes, violet. The exact shade of my own. My heart pounded inside my chest. Seeing the vision 612/695

clearly suddenly became much more important to me.

I looked at the woman, who was now heading down to the lake. Time was ru

“Hey! Where are you going?!” Nicholas called out.

Ignoring him, I let the tu

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I watched the woman get yanked underneath the water. I spun around to the man, shaking with anger. He was walking away, a sicken-ing, satisfied grin on his face. His dark grey eyes, his black hair, I grabbed onto every little detail I could, right down to the slight 613/695

crookedness of his nose and the scar grazing his left cheek.

My mouth dropped. “Holy—” A hand came down on my shoulder, and I whirled around, my breath whipping out in frantic gasps.

Nicholas held up his hands. “Whoa.

What the heck happened? What did you see?”

“Nothing.”

I

choked.

“It

wasn’t

important.”

“It had to be something important since you’re all worked up.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped. “Can we just go back? The vision’s over.” He eyed me over with his golden eyes.

“Yeah, I know. I can see everything now that it’s complete. Beautiful place, by the way—the Keepers castle.”

“This is the Keepers castle?” I said, stu

he’d never said anything about the castle belonging to the Keepers. Why would he keep that from me?

“Hmm…I thought you’d have known that since you are a Keeper.”

A…Was I ?This had never been explained to me. “Um…yeah, but I’ve never been here before,” I told him and then added, “I’ve lived a very sheltered life.” Which was true. My life, up until a few days ago, had been very sheltered.

He stared at my eyes. “Really…is that so?”

Okay, now I was just getting nervous.

“So can we go back?”

“What did you see exactly?” he asked, dodging my question. “Was there a meaning to any of it?”

“I don’t know…Is there supposed to be a meaning.”

“Sometimes.” He shrugged. “Sometimes not. Normally Foreseers use the crystal to 615/695

see a vision that has a purpose.” He inched closer to me. “But your vision was started by accident, so maybe there’s a reason you saw it and maybe not. Regardless, you had to finish the vision just in case there was some kind of significance to it” Oh, there was a reason I saw it. Here was the problem, though. If the little girl was me, why couldn’t I remember any of this happening? I know I would have been really young when it happened, but you’d think I’d have been able to remember something about it, right?